1 & 1/2 bits of good news and an example of how awkward I find life.

1- I've been asked to guest post! These are available at the links below if you want to read them, I'm personally just really excited about the fact that they're even there, and it's just crazy that something I wrote would ever look that good and professional.

http://www.sdmmovies.com/2012/11/23/taken-2-movie-2012-review-more-of-the-same-in-a-good-way/

http://www.sdmmovies.com/2012/11/23/28-days-later-2002-film-review/

...and 1/2 - The lovely people at Expatica wanted to advertise with me, unfortunately because of the way Wordpress is (i.e. free) I can't change the HTML set-up etc. etc. so this wasn't possible (it's like a you can live here but you can't paint the walls kind of deal), but it was very sweet of them to ask and I hope I get the chance to work with them in the future.

And the example of how awkward I find life:

This happened when I was going to a gig last Tuesday (discovered an awesome band, there will be a video below).

So I don't um, pay for public transport here, basically they just have machines on the street/metro stations where you can buy tickets but they don't actually check if you have them and it's expensive and I'm poor blah blah. I'm going to defend myself here by saying that I can only use public transport about 3 times a week max. and I walk everywhere else I need to go every other time. Although realistically I don't actually feel that guilty about it because I watch basically everyone else who gets on the bus/tram/metro do exactly the same thing. Sorry STIB/the Belgian economy.

But sometimes they do have people that check tickets, and I thought I'd spotted one of these people, so I stood up to get off hoping he wouldn't check me if I was leaving the bus, but whilst I was stood up it came to my attention he wasn't checking tickets, just asking people where they were going to so the bus company could improve their services. However, because I have absolutely no control over my social awkwardness I obviously felt compelled to get off the bus anyway because I'd been stood by the doors for so long that if I just sat back down it would look weird. So I travelled about 20 metres and had to walk the rest of the way, for no reason other than not wanting to look weird in front of all of about 5 people. I guess that's what you get for cheating the system whilst also having no social skills.

This is the band I was talking about, I'm not really a fan of the bees myself, but almost everyone I've shown this to (and apparently everyone on YouTube) has disagreed with me, so enjoy.

[youtube=http://youtu.be/a_bAQZATCTM]

Also a lot of people have been sharing this around but it's so good I feel I should do it too.

[youtube=http://youtu.be/8nif01WZ9aI]

Have a lovely last week of November :)

xx

I'm really struggling to think of titles for these posts.

 

And photos to head them with, so if I can't think of anything relevant, it's just gonna be pictures of street art, I hope that's okay.

For some reason I've been really productive over the last couple of days, maybe it's the realisation that if someone asks me a question in French on the street I can answer them in French without them laughing in my face.  Or it might be that after my post last weekend I realised that I didn't really have a plan.

I know, I know, it's still ages until I graduate and no one really knows what they're doing, but until now (and to be honest, still now) I had nothing.

Nada.

Niente.

Rien.

And I'm never really sure if I should do anything about it. Most of the people closest to me seem to be telling me not to worry and I'll find something eventually, that I'll be fine. But there are always some people (and it tends to be the people who initiate the 'future' discussion) that can't keep the worried look from their faces when I answer with 'I literally have no idea'. I used to nip the conversation in the bud with 'I'm going on placement in my third year, so I'll decide then'. Which was fine, until third year was actually now, and I'm still no closer to having any direction.

So I started thinking about it, but then I realised it wasn't my refusal to think about it that was the problem, it's that I genuinely don't know. I've changed my mind a couple of times over the past 6/7 years about what I wanted to do, it just so happens that the last time I changed my mind I was left without a replacement idea.

But I'm okay with that, I'm sure I'll figure it out eventually. The closest I got to an actual conclusion was just that after I graduate I'd really like to stop moving house. Just for a bit. Just living somewhere for longer than 9 months would be good.

This obviously wasn't the productive part of my week, that part involved deciding on my dissertation topic (sort of), doing washing, going food shopping, replying to all my emails, going running and still managing to have a social life. Unfortunately the last part involved the significantly less productive conclusion that I'd happily spend every night at Open Mic sessions in bars, and another defeat served to me by public transport.

That's now Claire - 0 Brussels transport - like, 50.

I promise I'm going to try and find more interesting things to write about than just whatever I'm thinking at the time, but I am basically excluded from the fashion/beauty realm of blogging due to a) not having any money to buy clothes and therefore wearing the same outfits to work over and over again, and b) not actually using any beauty products. In fact the no money thing prevents me from reviewing basically anything, but I'll find a way to work around it I promise.

Now to finish, a fun fact: Malta does not have a railway system, but then it is made up of 3 small islands, so as you might expect, boats are much better.

Jake Bugg's debut album is awesome, so if you haven't already, give it a listen.

Oh and Mobistar? The last 3 letters of my name are not 't-n-e', but I wanted you to stop calling me when I'm at work, so whatever you think you heard is fine.

Ciao!

xx

P.S. Unlimited thanks to the guy from Omnitherm who was just at the building I work in, not only is my office now toasty warm (and I'm no longer burning my ankles using the electric heater),  but at no other point would I have been able to drop my key down the drain outside and not just burst into tears. You are amazing. Merci beaucoup.

Happy 1 month in Brussels!

Can you believe it, as of last Saturday I've been here an entire month. I was actually crawling into the house at 6am Saturday morning - marking the time to the second that I first got here just 4 weeks ago. Needless to say I was just as tired but had spent the last 14 hours having much more fun than the first time around.

Aside from that, this week I have:

• Been kidnapped by a metro driver - apparently hilarious to close the doors before Marika could get on and drive away cackling like The Child-Catcher, leading to an epic journey, actually mainly down to the fact that we stayed on a tram for farrr too long and so basically went in a circle...


• Used translation headphones for the first time - getting the volume and language changing buttons mixed up when I was trying to write at the same time was a particularly confusing moment.


• Become increasingly angry and whoever shares a wall with me in the house next door - your alarm is your phone vibrating, and evidently it doesn't wake you for a good 15 minutes, but it does wake me, an hour before my alarm is due to go off. I will find you, and I will set you a more effective alarm.


• Bedding! - And as a result have just had the best 2 nights sleep (and possibly a nap on Sunday evening) of my (Belgian) life.


• Gone for my first run in about 8 months - my body definitely knew it. It can only get better.


• Finally been to a club with like, other young people in it, and good music and everything - that would be the getting in at 6am I mentioned, the best night I've had in a while.


• Done tourist-y things with my family - like see the Atomium, Mini Europe, eat overpriced sandwiches from a tiny cafe and be made to pose for countless photos with everything we saw - apologies for the ones included below, after 4 hours sleep, I was not photo-ready.


• Made exciting plans - including a home visit in November and a visit from a very good friend (Sally, I know you read this, and yes, this is you) in December so we can enjoy Belgium in all its festive glory.


• Finally caught up on Homeland - cannot believe I left it this long, brilliant.


• Probably used Skype more than the rest of my life put together - this would be the disgusting bit where I say thank you to anyone who's Skyped/messaged/spoken to/seen me this week - but that would be highly embarrassing, so I would never do that.

Songs of the post:

Placebo - Nancy Boy

The Vaccines - Ghost Town

Jay-Z & Kanye West feat. Frank Ocean - No Church in the Wild

Rolling Stones - Start Me Up

The Black Keys - Tighten Up

Royal Crescent, Bath. My piece of my second home in my third one.

Due to Italian traffic, the closest I've ever been to Pisa.

Bonne journée!

xx

1 week in Brussels - 10 things.

Here are ten things I've taken from my first week in Belgium:

1. Brussels apparently put cars last on their list of priorities against other forms of transport, in fact today is even 'No car day' and public transport is free. However, it appears no one has told the cars this, and everyone drives like they've been told they've only got an hour to live, like 'even if there's a red light I'll drive anyway if it doesn't look like I'm going to hit anyone'. It will probably be a small miracle if I leave this year without a broken leg.


2. The weather is the same. For anyone who had the idea that the weather would be much nicer for much longer in Brussels, this was an error, it's freezing and it rains, just like home...


3. On a more positive note, my French is much better than I thought, at least understanding wise, and when someone asked me a question in the street I actually helped them!


4. Sunday is a ghost town day, everything is closed by 1pm apart from the restaurants, public transport is still as regular,  but buying things is off the agenda entirely.


5. They absolutely love the waffles-fame, no doubt, they know that's what people come to see, in Grand-Place there are at least 5 shops per street that sell waffles for €1, and the waffle vans are everywhere in the city.


6. There's a big difference between the outer districts and the Schuman/EU institution area, particularly in language. I barely hear English in Etterbeek, but a 15 minute walk to the institution buildings creates a very different environment.


7. People are constantly coming and going. Not just in a 'this is an international city' kind of way, but in a 'internships are usually only 5/6 months here' kind of way. So as I'm staying until the end of June, come March I'll probably have to make a whole new set of work/house friends.


8. Google Chrome struggles with having websites in 3 languages. It translates something originally only in French fine, or in Dutch fine, but as soon as a website is potentially in both languages and I would like it in English we seem to get an amalgamation of the three. In which it translates some number characters into their English word counterparts and days of the week are spread over all three languages.


9. It's pointless to register as a resident - or so I've been told. I had an appointment to go and show my documents and pay the fee to become an official resident which then means I can have a bank account. However when I mentioned this to some people they told me it was more trouble than it was worth and since international bank transfers means I don't even need a Belgian bank account to pay my rent  and I don't want a phone contract - I guess they're right.


10. The guy who created Tin Tin is from Brussels, he's even from my district, which so far is my only claim to fame.

À la prochaine

xx